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Friday, September 17, 2010

What's This Guy Looking At?

Maximum Time Aloft involves throwing a very light and aerodynamic boomerang which is specially made to “fly” as long as possible. In most competitions the rules require that the boomerang also land within a defined area but MTA boomerangs have been known to travel miles and fly for over 14 minutes.

MTA boomerangs are specially made to float in the air for a long period of time; the current world record for time aloft is 3 minutes 10 seconds by Manuel Schütz in 1999. Flight times of greater than 30 seconds are common place in the MTA event and occasionally you will see an MTA catch a thermal and rise into the sky and never be seen again. The most high-tech boomerangs for this event are made form carbon-fiber and will cost upwards of $100 a piece, so placing a tag on the boomerang with your name and address is very common.